Biden Watch

Former Vice President Joe Biden had a number of media appearances this week, and made some news. He told CBS News that President Trump “seems to have a love affair with autocrats.” He added: “I just don’t know why this administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from Putin to Kim Jong Un to you know Duterte. I don’t understand it.”

When asked to explain Trump’s behavior, Biden responded: “I don’t want to speculate on my worst fears. But, either he doesn’t know what he is doing or he has an absolutely convoluted notion of what allows America to lead the world.”

Regarding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi specifically, Biden said, “My doubts are that there’s very little sense of rule of law [in the Saudi government], respect for human rights, dignity. The allegations that are made so far, I don’t know yet are not inconsistent with the way the kingdom would act.” On Trump’s response, Biden continued, “The idea that he’s already making excuses before the facts are known is typical, but it hurts us internationally.” O’Donnell asked if the allegations are true, should there be consequences? “Absolutely, positively. This was a permanent American resident,’ he said.

In an interview with CNN, with respect to 2020, Joe Biden said that it would be “totally legitimate” to question his age if he mounts a White House bid in 2020. Said Biden: “I think it’s totally appropriate for people to look at me and say if I were to run for office again, ‘Well God darn you’re old.’” He added: “Well, chronologically, I am old.”

Biden told CBS that he hopes there is no effort to impeach the president now, saying they should wait to take action until the conclusion of an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. “I don’t think there’s a basis for doing that right now,” Biden said. “I think we should focus on all the terrible things that are happening now in terms of interest of the middle-class people and working class people. There are so many things to attend to immediately.”

Biden also said voters were “absolutely, positively, without question” being suppressed in the United States. He talked about Georgia, where dozens of elderly black voters were recently removed from a bus taking them to vote. More than 53,000 voter registration applications there are also on hold. “Seventy percent of those are African American,” Biden told CBS. “Suprise, surprise.”